Customer Reviews

Science Fiction: The Best of the Year

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The cover of the mass market paperback of the 2007 version of this series lists the names "Joe Haldeman, Alastair Reynolds, Michael Swanwick." Yet none of those authors is represented here. Perhaps the publisher used the cover from another year, updated the year, but not the rest of the cover.

It's a good collection, but the publisher should have been more careful.

I loved most of the stories included, but was confronted by many typos and errors, such as missing words. Not enough to detract from the enjoyment of the story, but enough that I am writing a review. Also about 15 or so pages in the middle of my edition were simply missing...

The collection of stories from 2007 ranges from some duds to some very nice pieces, with nothing that challenges for greatness. The authors demonstrated some very creative ideas and themes, without the follow-through in several of those cases to make compelling enough stories.

Some favorites:

Okanoggan Falls - aliens invade Wisconsin and need what's underground. The relationship between a local woman and the alien leader makes this rather unusual. I'm not sure exactly why I liked this one quite a bit.

The Cartesian Theater - philosophical considerations about duplicate life and definition of humanity and the sould, similar in principle to AI debates, with a bit of mystery thrown in.

Incarnation Day - virtual children as a substitute for real, only they can become real with minds of their own. I liked how the virtual children can be purged from the system via reboot if the grownups want to get rid of them.

Exit Before Saving - morphing technology gets a spin here as a tool of espionage, with a little dangerous fun on the side, and a risk of being overtaken by a replacement technology that could make this obsolete. As with some of the other stories, this one could have been expanded.

Life on the Preservation - a piece of Earth is preserved in an endless cycle of repetition for interplanetary tourists to observe. Kylie is sent on a special mission and decides, hey, life here was pretty good. Pretty neat story that could have been better.

A Billion Eves - a novella about the propagation of humanity through a clever "ripper" technology that transports a group instantly to another world, from which the process expands indefinitely. With religious overtones and an ecological perspective. In fact, it has a bit of a jumble of ideas thrown together, creative enough to sustain interest.

Overall, three to four stars, rounded down for the appalling error in the cover and some sloppy editing.

This is a fair collection of 12 science fiction stories from 2006. The stories are preceded by a very brief characterization of the science fiction field during 2006 and an overview of the collection. As the editor notes, there is a larger-than-usual number of stories with religious themes, although this seems not to have been a conscious goal.

My favorite three stories are described below. They all focus on love--platonic, parental and romantic--in unusual circumstances. They aren't really "love stories." But each has something to teach us about the human heart--loosely speaking.

Carolyn Ives Gilman's "Okanoggan Falls" is set on a future Earth after an alien invasion and occupation. When an alien military unit is assigned to relocate a Wisconsin town, their plans are complicated by the alien commander's very personal reaction to the mayor's wife.

Walter Jon Williams' "Incarnation Day" explores a future society in which children are raised as virtual software and embodied only when they become adults. As software with no legal status as human beings, children can simply be erased if their "bugs" cannot be reprogrammed. Or for any other reason that seems good to their parents.

In Jack Skillingstead's "Life on the Preservation" we venture into a running model of Seattle that has been captured by alien technology and replays the same day over and over for the benefit of tourists, anthropologists, and... aliens. A woman trapped there must escape before the cycle resets or become part of it forever. Along with the wonderful man she has just met.

I am probably spoiled by the numerous Gardner Dozois and David Hartwell anthologies I have read. In enjoyed the stories in this book, but the collection as a whole is not as good as I expected. I read too many "just okay" stories, found the introductory review of science fiction in 2006 cursory, and had to hunt for additional information about the authors in an endnote section. There was little value added to the stories themselves.

Check this one out of the library and read selectively from it. Then return it on time and without further commitment.